Class "R" Detective
Class "R" Detective is the second issue of Before the Incal. It's divided in five chapters. In this issue the character of Luz De Garra, John's main love interest is first introduced and the story-line of the case of the babies of the Red Ring starts to develop. It's also the first time we get glimpses of John's early chidlhood. It was published in 1990 by Les Humanoïdes Associés. It was written by Alejandro Jodorowsky, illustrated by Zoran Janjetov. Plot Two is Better Than One An urban clown, Wit-nit, is willing to tell jokes while setting himself on fire, if he make the holo-viewers laugh his poor relatives will receive thirteen thousand kublars but if he doesn’t make anyone laugh they will receive nothing. Deepo drops another bomb on a couple of cyboc-ops next to the clown. John uses the confusion to steal the body parts of the cybo-cops so that he can repair Koblos-5. He escapes through an airshaft, where he’s chased by robo-sentries, which hits in the eye to destroy- Koblos-5 trains John for months, so that he can be ready to be a class “R” detective, although John would prefer to be a class “A” thief. Koblos-5 attaches a lock to John‘s hair, a vibrating microphone that will let Koblos-5 listen in on conversations. Truth is Pain John’s gang is coming back from spending time with homeo-whores when they run into a Mega-mex war volunteers parade in avenue 345957, and a violent clash between volunteers and Psycho-anarchists takes place, suddenly, the Metabaron squashes them, in what is his last day of active service. John’s gang quickly gets away from there. While high and eating a vitasteak, they’re watching a holovid reportage where they learn that a very valuable statuette from the pre-techno-techno era (recovered by the volunteer army while pillaging Mega-mex) will be in on display in an exhibit in the Palace of Arts & Finances, now that the Metabaron is retired and the police forces are still reorganizing they have a chance to steal it. The gang plans the smuggle a firework launcher inside the Palace, so that they can shoot them into the air and create a distraction while John steals the statue. If they get arrested, the cybo-cops will see that it’s just a harmless toy and realize they’re not thieves. They give John a hollow camera, so that he can hid the statue there, but when he pushes the red button to open the hollow camera fireworks come out, attracting attention to himself. John has been tricked by his friends, who manage to steal the statue in the confusion. John is carried away by the cybo-cops, when suddenly the secret police arrest John’s friends and DiFool is congratulated for giving the tip about the robbery. John figures out that Koblos-5 arranged this. Indeed, Koblos-5 altered the pitch of his voice with the vocoder to tip off the cybo-cops as if he was John DiFool. Koblos-5 explains to John that robots like him can actually accommodate human-like feelings, however the Techno-techno order leaves no place for emotion since it violates their whole belief structure, so they put a self-destruct mechanism in all robots, which means that at the first sign of any feelings Koblos-5 could explode into a thousand pieces. Don't Stir My Heart kisses John.]] John’s first job as a pre-detective consists of taking a particularly ugly aristo miss Luz de Garra (daughter of the Prime Minister) to St. Prez, the hospital where they sent everyone with the meropa virus. Luz forces him and Deepo to urinate in the medication of the sick for her amusement, under the threat of making John lose or else his license. Luz also wants a kiss from John. Upon kissing her it’s revealed that Luz was actually wearing holo-make up and she’s actually beautiful. On they way to Luz’s conapt, when they’re about to enter the airtube, they get harassed by a bunch of kids and a muscular criminal, but Luz manages to kill him throwing her halo (the aristo’s secret weapon). Hate Will Rise After Luz’s recommendation for John to become an official private detective, the cybo-cops send an eye-cop to his home, where it informs him that before the final confirmation the applicant must carry out an official investigation on the subject that he desires, and the eye-cop will stay by his side to transmit the results to Police Central. After looking back on his painful childhood, where he was secretly locked up and not allowed outside until he was seven years old, and after finally letting him out he had to say he was adopted, without being given any reason, he realizes that despite all the years spent in the club surrounded by prostitutes they never seemed to have children. He proposes one subject as a case: The mystery of the babies of the Red Ring. kills John's witness.]] At police central, cybo-cop XP-207 informs the Supra-divinoid that John has chosen a “taboo” subject. The Supra-divinoid is angered and afraid that secrets regarding that case will be revealed, so he destroys XP-207 to eliminate witnesses. Meanwhile, John goes back to his childhood neighborhood and remembers how Sofiah, one of the shellbacks captured as slaves on Mega-mex who used to take care of him. However, when they arrive at his conapt a Techno Combat Robot suddenly destroys the place, killing DiFool’s principal witness, nevertheless he decides to stay on the case. On the way to the Daredevil Club John finds a lady with a female concrete seagull, but he ignores him because he’s in a hurry. Once on the club the prostitutes greet him amicably but when he start interrogating them about the children the prostitutes get angry, and he gets thrown out by the club bodyguard, Kaganu. The Hope of the Wicked Later, John is spying the flat of several prostitutes (XB-34 the Beautiful, the Whale of Aldebarn, Hot Connie, the Technodominatrix, Sex Kitten and Kia-loh the Ebony Goddess). In the meantime, Koblos-5 is bathing Deepo. Suddenly, John sees a Techno-techno craft arriving to take Sex Kitten, who’s about to give birth. John wants to tail them in his moto-vette but a Techno Combat Robot appears again attacking him. DiFool starts to suspect eye-cop. After Sex Kitten comes out of the craft without the baby, she interrogates her, but gets killed by eye-cop before she can talk. Apparently police central momentarily took control of its circuits, an illegal procedure since it interferes with the investigation. To secure that the police central is not spying him anymore, John smash the eye-camera with eye-cop’s permission. and the Supra-divinoid.]] The Techno-pope is talking with the Supra-divinoid, who tells the Techno-pope that he must order the Prezident to instruct the Prime Minister to do exactly as the Supra-divinoid says, because they’re on the verge of an scandal, in fact, the eye-cop could communicate with the millions of other eye-cops and expose their secret. The Techno-pope point outs that the Prezident was recently cloned into an amphibious octopus from Betelgama, angering th Supra-divinoid. He orders the Prezident to be transferred to the body of professor Nump of Satellite University. Once the Prezident is transferred, he’s angry at De Garra, the Prime Minister, for his daughter behavior. Koblos-5 is afraid that thousands of cybo-cops, robo-marauders and executioners scouts will soon be on his tail, and that they will need some defense, so he has acquired a multicogan for defense. They also find a new hideout, a place whre Koblos-5 used to spy the Blue Monads long ago. Suddenly, John receives call in his mini-viewphone. It’s Luz, telling him that his father, has pardoned him and that he should come to her conapt, DiFool agrees. Other issues # ''Farewell, Father'' (1988) # ''Class "R" Detective'' (1990) # Croot (1991) # ''Psycho Anarchist'' (1992) # Vhisky, SPV and Homeo-Whores (1993) # ''Suicide Alley'' (1995)